MTV Playlist, Light Rotation, May 1983

A few days back, I posted a MTV Playlist as part of a look back at May 1983. As I glanced at that playlist, one band in particular caught my eye: Rail. I noticed them not for their band name or song ("Hello"), but rather for their label - they didn't have one. And down the rabbit hole I went. In my mind, I constructed a scenario in which a regional band makes their own video, submits it to MTV unsolicited, some MTV exec likes it, there's some under-the-table payola and yada yada yada, it makes the MTV playlist.

But then I watched the video and at the end appears the lovely Martha Quinn talking about The Basement Tapes. The Basement Tapes! I'd completely forgotten about that thing.

Unsigned bands would submit videos and viewers would vote by telephone. Rail was the first winner of Basement Tapes and that's why they're on the playlist. Anyhoo, here's an annotated/linked copy of the above playlist. Some big hits and some bigger misses in this pile as well and at least one hit that should have been a miss. (apologies to Bonnie T. - it's not you, it's me). And at least five songs I have no memory of ever hearing before today.

Artist	Clip	Album	Pop	Rock	AC
Iron Maiden	Flight of Icarus	Piece of Mind		8
Jim Capaldi	That's Love	Fierce Heart	28		3
Gary Myrick	Guitar, Talk, Love & Drums	Language (EP)
Bonnie Tyler	Total Eclipse of the Heart	Faster Than the Speed of Night	1	23	7
Rank & File	Rank & File	Sundown
Todd Rundgren	Bang on the Drum All Day	The Ever Popular Tortured Artist Effect	63	29
Ric Ocasek	Jimmy Jimmy	Beatitude
Rail	Hello	Arrival
Pete Shelley	Telephone Operator	XL1
Sylvester	Hard Up	All I Need
Joan Armatrading	Drop the Pilot	The Key	78	33
ABC	All of My Heart	The Lexicon of Love
Culture Club	Time	Kissing to be Clever	2		6
Tears for Fears	Mad World	The Hurting
Kix	Body Talk	Cool Kids	104
Dexys Midnight Runners	Celtic Soul Brothers	Too-Rye-Ay	86	143
New Models	Stranger in Disguise	Sight and Sound (EP)		143

I would have sworn ABC's "All of My Heart" had been a single here in the US, but I would have lost that bet. Good new discoveries for me were the Sylvester and New Models tunes.